Magical Memories- Disney 2013

We just got back from Disney World!  We had an amazing trip!  We went two years ago when Emily was three and a half.  We had a great trip but we knew this would be the trip that she was really old enough to remember but young enough to still be believe in all the magic.  We wanted to make it a trip full of  fun and great memories.

We counted down the days until we left for Disney.  Each morning Emily took a Mickey off the calendar. It was a fun way to get ready for our trip.

 I had a lot of fun planning this trip!  I spent a lot of time making reservations and I had a blast planning the details including Emily's Disney wardrobe!   I wanted her to have a little Disney surprise to open each day.   I bought them before we went on our trip because I knew buying them in the park would be a lot more expensive.  I was able to wrap each days surprise for her to open on the trip.  Emily had grown out of all of her pajamas so she got some new Disney pajamas. She also got a Cinderella's Carriage necklace that our travel agency gave us for our last trip.  I knew she was too young at three years old so I saved it for this trip.  She also got a stuffed Minnie Mouse and a coloring book.  She loved opening her Disney gift each day.

Each night I laid out her clothes for the next day.  She hadn't seen them before so they were also a fun surprise for each morning. We kept most of our Disney plans a secret so Emily would be surprised.  I had letters printed for her to open each day to tell her about the plans of the day.  She looked forward to the letter and clothes each morning.
                        


Wednesday:  Travel and Dinner at O'Hana

We flew out on Wednesday morning.  When Emily woke up she found her Wednesday letter and her outfit for the day.  We told her she could take her American Girl doll on the plane.  I decided that if she was going to fly with us, they might as well have matching shirts.  They were adorable!

This was her Wednesday letter.

In the car on the way to the airport.

At the airport.

Waiting to board the plane.

We had a direct flight which was wonderful, however, we did have a delay.  Our plane had a problem so we had to wait on the runway while it was fixed.  We got to our  resort about 2 hours later than we thought.  It was fine because our dinner reservations weren't until 5pm.  We got to our resort about 2pm.  We had a little time to hang out at our resort.  Here is a picture of our room.

We had not had anything to eat since breakfast so we had a light lunch at our resort.
 Chef Mickey is in our resort but we only ate at the quick serve restaurant during this trip.  It shares a wall with Chef Mickey.  We did a Mickey breakfast on our last trip and we hadn't heard really good things about Chef Mickey recently so we decided to skip it this time. We did other character meals instead.  It seems like we see a lot of Mickey and his friends while on our Disney trips.  It was nice to meet some new characters.  We did walk over and take a picture at Chef Mickey.

Then we headed to the Polynesian.  We arrived a little early and walked around and spent a little time on the "beach".  It was wonderful!  The best part is it was just a quick monorail ride from our resort.  We loved being able to travel most places by monorail.

You can see our resort across the water.

We had dinner at O'Hanna.  It was so yummy and lots of fun for Emily.  She got to go on a parade, push coconuts with a broom, and dance the hula.

Time for bed.  Tomorrow is going to be a busy day.

Thursday:  Magic Kingdom

We were up early to start our day at the Magic Kingdom.

Jeff and Emily played a little ping pong at the resort while they waited for me to get ready.

Then we had a quick monorail ride over to The Magic Kingdom.  It was a beautiful day!

  We knew we had two days at Magic Kingdom this trip so we didn't have to rush.  We did head right over to Fantasyland first thing to knock out some of the most popular things before the park got really crowded.  We went to get fastpasses for Peter Pan and got bonus fastpasses for The Little Mermaid.  The first ride we went on was the carousel and then It's A Small World.  We walked right on both rides and Emily LOVED Small World!  We got some breakfast at Gaston's Tavern.  We had the most amazing cinnamon roll.  It's a really cute place next to Belle's castle.  The line for Enchanted Tales With Belle was really long so we decided to save that for another day.  Here is Emily outside of Gaston's Tavern.

Then went on Peter Pan and The Little Mermaid.  This was our first time on the Little Mermaid ride since it's part of the new fantasyland expansion.  It was really cute.  Then we went next door to the meet and greet with Ariel.  Emily had never met Ariel before so she was very excited.

We also got to see Drizella and Anastasia.  It was good to see the stepsisters again.  We loved hanging out with them on our last trip.

Weeeeee!

We also had fun on Dumbo, the tea cups, Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and Goofy's Barnstormer Roller coaster.

We met Pooh and got him to sign Emily's autograph book.  Somehow the pictures didn't show up on our fastpass so we don't have any pictures (sad).

We met some other friends in the Storybook Circus character area.

Emily is really into princesses and imagination right now.  Her biggest wish was to be a princess for a day. She dreamed it would happen on our Disney trip. We had booked the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo Boutique and dinner at Cinderella's castle.  Emily didn't know about this, we wanted to surprise her.  We decided to have an invitation made for Emily from Cinderella.  We brought it with us to the park.  We noticed that when you walk through the castle they had ladies standing outside of the BBB Boutique.  Jeff ran ahead of us and asked one of the ladies to deliver the invitation to Emily.  She played the part perfectly.  We caught up to Jeff and we all walked through the castle.  The lady came up to Emily and said, "Excuse me, are you Princess Emily?  Cinderella asked me to give this to you."  Emily was so excited!  It was a beautiful moment!

Look at that face!  So happy!

This is the invitation.

We'll be spending the evening at the castle!  Woo Hoo!

We caught a side view of the end of a show that Emily loved at the castle...Dream Along With Mickey.

 

Then found a good spot to watch a wonderful parade...Celebrate A Dream Come True!

As Cinderella came by she yelled, "Cinderella, thank you for the invitation!"

Then we got some lunch.  We rode on the Jungle Cruise boat ride and Pirates of the Caribbean and then went to see Mickey's PhilharMagic.

By the way, Emily was not a fan of the 3-D movie.  She yelled at the movie the whole time.

Then we were off to the castle for her boutique appointment.

The first order of business...choosing a dress.

Of course, she chose Belle!

Then it was off to hair and make-up.

She chose the Pop Princess hair style! WOW! Look at that hair! She chose it because it was long, rainbow hair.

Then with a wave of the magic wand and a little pixie dust...

Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo

Then it was off to Castle Couture for a photo shoot.  Castle Couture is new and it's a princess gift shop with a room set up for photo shoots.

 I loved Cinderella's dress sketch and dress. 

Then it was time for our dinner at Cinderella's Royal Table.

Cinderella greeted us as we walked in.

Then we went up to our table.  We were sitting right by the window and we had a pretty view.

Emily did some royal coloring while enjoying the view.

The menu.

Then one by one four of Cinderella's princess friends were introduced.  They made their way around the dinning room to each table.

Snow White

Aurora

Ariel

Jasmine

Our entrees.

When we sat down they brought Emily a magic wand and a wishing star.  After dinner they had the children close their eyes, wave their magic wands over their wishing star while saying the magic words "Bibbidi, Bobbidi, Boo".  The princesses walked around the dinning room as they did this.  Then the children opened their eyes and the lights did something special to make the stars light up.  Very cool!

 

By this time, it was getting dark.

I had heard mixed reviews about Cinderella's Royal table but we loved it.  The food was great and the experience was amazing!  I would highly recommend it to any princess lovers!!!

After leaving the castle we went to ride It's A Small World again.  Then we headed over to Tomorrow land and walked right on Buzz Light Year.  Then we found a dance party and Emily 

danced a little with Pluto, Chip, Dale and Stitch.

On our way out of the park we stopped to visit with Mickey Mouse.

Then Mickey decided he wanted to sign Emily's balloon.

Then it was time for bed. Emily thought Daddy needed a tiara.

 Emily wanted to sleep in her hair but after laying on it she decided she wanted it out.  Five hair washes later and she was ready for bed.  We had a fabulous day at Magic Kingdom.

Friday: Hollywood Studios

This was the only park we went to that we couldn't ride the monorail.  We had reservations at Play and Dine at Hollywood and Vine at Hollywood studios before the park opened.  We were up early to catch the bus to the park. 

Emily is a big Disney Jr. fan.  Unfortunately, the Disney Jr. stage was closed to make room for her two favorite Disney Jr. characters, Doc Mcstuffins and Princess Sofia.  It was scheduled to open on Thursday.  I was so bummed that we missed it.  We were able to book the Disney Jr. character breakfast.  When we got to the restaurant and Emily looked through the window to see Handy Mandy, Jake from Jack and the Neverland Pirates, Special Agent Oso and June from Little Einsteins, she was so excited!  She loved this breakfast.  The characters came around to every one's table but they also took breaks to dance with the kids.

Handy Mandy

Jeff was excited to meet Handy Mandy too!

June

Jake

Oso

It was a great way to start our day!

We got to see Goofy too.

Hollywood Studios is such a pretty park.  We went on the Great Movie Ride, which Emily hated.  She was so scared.  Scary movie scenes and a ride in the dark...not a good combination for Emily.  I forgot how scary some of the scenes could be for a sensitive child.  We went to see the Voyage of the Little Mermaid Show and spent some time on the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground.  Then it was time for our lunch reservations.  We ate a Mama Melrose.  Our lunch was  part of a Fantasmic package which gave us preferred seating for the Fantasmic Show at the end of the day.  Lunch was yummy.  

We had fastpassed Toy Story Mania but our return time ended at 1:10 and our lunch was at 12:10.  We ran to Toy Story Mania after lunch.  We got there at 1:15.  The only reason we got to get in was that one of our tickets return time ended at 1:15.  We just made it!    Emily had a great time on this ride.  It's really fun! 

 Then we went to see the Muppet Vision 3-D.  Emily watched it with her glasses off.  She says she doesn't like the things to go in her face.

Emily saw the Princess Sofia sign and had to take a picture.

We decided to get some snacks and find a good place to watch the parade.  Yes, that's right.  She ended up with a Mickey ice cream and a lollipop.

We decided to go see the Beauty and the Beast show.  As we walked up the hill to the theater, a cast member asked Emily if she would like to be the special princess at the show and go up to the stage to get a rose from the prince.  Yes!  We were so excited.  We were given a card to give to the cast member inside.  They took us right to the front to sit in the special princess row.

The show was fabulous.

At the end of the show a cast member came to get her and brought her to the stage.

They gave her this little card as a keepsake.

The rest of the day every cast member who saw Emily's rose talked to her about her being chosen as the special princess.  It was a really amazing experience!  This was one surprise we didn't know about.  Emily's dream is to be a princess.  She sure got lots of opportunities on our Disney trip!

Next, Emily and Jeff got a snack while I rode the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster.  I love that ride.  I can't wait until Emily is big enough for us to all ride it together.

 Next watched the Disney Channel Rocks singers and dancers.

Emily got to dance a little too.

Then it was time to head to Fantasmic.  We didn't have to wait in line.  We walked right up and sat in the reserved section.  It was great!  I highly recommend the Fantasmic Package.

 Then we went back to our resort to eat dinner.  Emily found her Friday present to open and then off to bed.

Saturday:  Epcot

We didn't take Emily to Epcot on our last trip.  She was really excited to go this time.

Here she is all ready for Epcot.  Poor girl, lost her voice after breakfast.  She seemed to feel fine but she had a cough and no voice.  It was so quiet and so weird for her to not be talking.

We started the morning with Test Track. It was lots of fun.

Then we went on Soarin'.  Soarin' was fantastic!  It makes you feel like you are hang-gliding over different parts of California.  

    Then we did Spaceship Earth, the ride in the big Epcot ball.  

Next we headed to The Seas with Nemo & Friends.

We decided to go over to the World Showcase.  In England we met Mary Poppins.

We walked to France for lunch.  After lunch we ran into Belle.

The view of Future World from World Showcase.  So pretty!

In The United States, Emily got to be a part of a colonial parade.  She even got her own copy of the Declaration of Independence.

Next was Japan.  Emily got to pick a pearl for her Cinderella's carriage necklace.  It was so much fun.  First she chose the oyster.

The lady taught her to count to three in Japanese while she opened the oyster.

There were two pearls in her oyster.

She measured the pearls.

Then she cleaned them.

Next, a little music ceremony.

 

Then they placed one of the pearls in the necklace.

Emily loved it!

Then secret agent "E" completed a mission in Germany.  The Phineas and Ferb (Agent P's Adventure) was pretty cool.  They received a phone and they had to listen to the clues and follow the instructions.  Here are a few picture of Emily and Jeff working hard on the mission.

I LOVE this picture!

They completed their mission. 

Next, Italy!

We took the boat back over to Future World to see a few characters.

She had to show Minnie that she was on her dress.

 Then we decided to go back to the resort to swim and rest up before returning later for fireworks.  It was nice to have a break.  We came back that evening ready for the fireworks.

We ate dinner at a restaurant in Mexico right on the water.  We had a great view of the fireworks.

Sunday:Magic Kingdom

We wanted to start and end our Disney trip at Magic Kingdom.  It was so nice to have two days at Magic Kingdom.  We were at the park before it opened to catch the opening show.  It is the coolest show.  They welcome everyone to the Magic Kingdom and they bring the characters in on the train and do a little singing and dancing. 

We headed right to Fantasyland to do Enchanted Tales With Belle.  It was closed due to technical difficulties so we rode It's A Small World again.  This was Emily's favorite ride.  Since this was the third time we did this ride I decided to take a few pictures.

 

We rode Peter Pan again and managed to catch Enchanted Tales With Belle when it opened up again.  We only had a 25 minute wait which is not bad for this attraction.  Here is Emily waiting in line.

It was cute. You start off in Maurice's cottage and then you are magically brought into the Beast's library for an interactive story time with Belle.  The children get to be in the story.  They are either an object from the story and one child is chosen to play the role of the beast.  Emily was excited to see the "real candlestick" as she says.  Here are some pictures.

Lumiere talked and moved which was really cool. 

Emily was the footstool.

Be magically transported from Maurice’s cottage to the Beast’s library for a delightful...Read More

Then we went to grab some breakfast at Gaston's Tavern.  I am so in love with the cinnamon rolls.  This time we tried the frozen apple juice drink, which is made to look like beer from the tavern.  I'm not a huge apple juice fan but  it was so good.  It had marshmallow fluff on top.  So yummy! 

We walked over to Frontierland and fastpassed Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.  While we waited to ride it we rode the train around the park and back to Frontierland.  When we got back to Frontierland we got to see Woody and Jessie from Toystory.

Then we rode the roller coaster.  Emily loved it!  Then we headed to the castle to catch a parade and a show.  

During the parade they invited people to come and dance in the street.

At the end of the parade they shot out little foil colorful Mickeys.  Emily had fun collecting them.

Then we found a good seat for the show Emily had been asking to see again.

Here is one of my favorite statues. 

Then we walked down Main Street to find some princesses.

                                                
                               This is the first time Emily met Rapunzel.

 

                      She got to see Aurora again.  They had a lot to talk about. 

                      Emily is always happy to see Cinderella.

                            Is that me on your dress?

Next was Tomorrowland.

We rode the Peoplemover.  We went to see Carousel of Progress, which Emily loved and Moster's Inc. Laugh Floor. 

We had a late lunch in Tomorrowland.  Emily decided that she wanted to do Space Mountain.  We warned her that is was a fast roller coaster in the DARK.  She was sure she wanted to do it.  She was barely tall enough, thanks to the flower in her hair, she made it on the ride.  I was so nervous about her riding it but she ROCKED it and loved it.  The first thing I heard her say was when it slowed down at the end and she said, "Is it going to go fast again?"  We were so proud of her.  Look at that smile on her face.  Jeff kept his hand on her the whole time.

                                          
Emily wanted to get her face painted.  

It turned out really pretty.

Jeff got her the bubble gun she had been wanting and somehow we ended up doing the Cupid Shuffle with Goofy and Pluto.  Emily added a little something to it with her bubble gun.

Then it started to get dark.  I love Cinderella's castle, especially at night.

We quickly headed over to Adventureland to ride on Aladdin's Magic Carpets and we climbed the Swiss Family Treehouse!  These were a lot of fun at night.

 We had reservations at the Tomorrowland Terrace Fireworks Dessert Party.  This was not an easy reservation to get.  I checked everyday for about 6 weeks until it was available.  It was totally worth it.  We were able to have coffee and dessert with a perfect view of the electrical parade, the pre-show called Celebrate the Magic and the firework show, Wishes.  We will definitely do this again.

                               This was our amazing view!

It was a fabulous day! 

Monday: Going Home

It didn't seem so magical next morning when we had to be out the door to catch our magical express bus to the airport by 5:15am.  We had a direct flight home which was nice.  This time there were no issues.  We had a nice flight.

We were home by 10:30am.  We left the beautiful sunny Florida weather to come home to cold rain.  Emily also was pretty sick by the time we walked in our door.  Thankfully, she waited to get sick until after our trip. 

Honestly, we couldn't have asked for a better Disney trip!  It really did feel like "the most magical place on earth".